Cologne or Berlin?

Neither city has a coast, but Berlin offers far better swimming. In summer, people head to the long sandy lido at Wannsee, the Müggelsee and forest lakes like Schlachtensee, all easy to reach by S-Bahn or bus.

Cologne's river doesn't help. The Rhine is too fast and too busy with shipping to swim in, so locals drive or cycle out to flooded gravel pits such as Fühlinger See. In both cities, a swim is a high-summer extra, not a reason to book.

Berlin eats better because of its variety. Decades of Turkish migration shaped Kreuzberg and Neukölln, and Vietnamese, Korean and Levantine kitchens are common, along with market halls, beer gardens and a proper fine-dining tier.

Cologne has the stronger local ritual. In the Altstadt brewhouses, a Köbes keeps topping up your Kölsch while you eat Himmel un Ääd or a Halve Hahn. Beyond that, the choice narrows to Ehrenfeld and the Belgian Quarter, with the best Turkish food along Venloer Strasse.

Neither city has an intact old town, since both were heavily damaged in the war, but Berlin has much more to see. Museum Island, Nefertiti and the old masters are just the start. The Reichstag, the Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse and Karl-Marx-Allee let you follow the twentieth century at the places where it happened.

Cologne's sights are a few outstanding buildings rather than a whole city. The cathedral dominates the riverfront. The twelve Romanesque churches and the Roman remains add older layers, and Museum Ludwig is a real draw for Pop Art. It makes a rewarding two days, while Berlin can fill a week.

Berlin is one of the few cities people travel to just for its clubs. The techno venues in old power stations have no closing time, and the doors are strict. Below that sits a deep layer of Kneipen, cocktail bars and canal-side drinking across Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Neukölln.

Cologne is more about friendly bar-hopping than clubbing. A typical night goes from brewhouse to the Belgian Quarter or the Zülpicher Strasse student strip, and the gay scene around Rudolfplatz is one of Germany's largest. The exception is Carnival, when the whole city parties in costume for days, something even Berlin has no answer to.

Cologne has the edge for walkers because the land starts to rise within about forty minutes. The Siebengebirge and the Drachenfels crag have marked trails above the Rhine, and the Eifel national park and the Ahr vineyards are about an hour away.

Berlin is greener inside the city, with the Tiergarten, the runways of Tempelhof and the Grunewald forest. Its outdoors is flat, though: sailing on the Havel, canoeing in Brandenburg and cycling the Wall Trail rather than climbing anything.

Cologne is the better base for day trips. Brühl's palaces, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Aachen's Carolingian chapel are all under forty minutes by train. The castle towns of the Rhine Gorge, Maastricht and Brussels are close enough for a full day out.

Berlin has one outstanding trip in Potsdam, where Sanssouci can easily take a whole day. Wittenberg, Leipzig and the Spreewald are good second choices, but Dresden already means a long day, and after that the options run out quickly.

Berlin has more to keep children busy over a longer stay. It has two big zoos, the Natural History Museum with its towering dinosaur skeleton, and the trains and planes of the Museum of Technology. The flat streets and step-free trains make pushing a pram easy.

Cologne's best family outings are the Chocolate Museum with its working production line, the cable car over the Rhine, and Phantasialand at Brühl, a major theme park that Berlin lacks. If you're bringing small children, avoid the Carnival days.

Berlin has the more complete transport network. The U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses share one ticket, the S-Bahn Ring links most districts quickly, and trains run through the night at weekends. You will use it, because Mitte, Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg and Charlottenburg are separate centres. Each is easy to walk, but you need a train or tram to get from one to the next. The flat streets and wide bike lanes make cycling an easy alternative.

Cologne needs less transport in the first place. Most sights sit in one flat, walkable core around the cathedral, and you can walk to Deutz across the Hohenzollern Bridge. When you do take a tram or the Stadtbahn, the network map is hard to follow and services can be crowded and irregular.

Berlin is more fun for browsing. It has concept stores around Hackescher Markt, record shops and vintage clothing in Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg, and Sunday flea markets at Mauerpark and Boxhagener Platz full of vinyl and East German curios. The Ku'damm and the food hall at KaDeWe cover the mainstream.

Cologne is mainly a high-street city, centred on Schildergasse and Hohe Strasse, with independent shops on Ehrenstrasse and in the Belgian Quarter. It does have a real souvenir in Eau de Cologne from the historic perfume houses on Glockengasse, and its Advent Christmas markets.

Overall, the two cost about the same, but the savings come in different places. In Berlin, food is the cheap part, with döner, Vietnamese canteens and corner bars, while a busy museum schedule adds up.

In Cologne, sightseeing is cheap because the cathedral and the other churches are free to enter, and a brewhouse meal costs little. Hotel prices are the risk: they jump during the big Messe trade fairs and at Carnival, so check the dates before you book.

Berlin has far more on stage. It has three full opera houses, the Berlin Philharmonic in Scharoun's Philharmonie, and the Friedrichstadt-Palast revue, which visitors can enjoy without speaking German. On top of that come famous theatre companies and a large circuit of jazz cellars and experimental music venues.

Cologne's arts scene is solid on a smaller scale. The opera and the Schauspiel share Offenbachplatz, and the Gürzenich and WDR orchestras play the Philharmonie by the cathedral. Early music in the Romanesque churches and the dialect bands of the Carnival sessions give it a character of its own.

Both cities are equally good for unwinding, and both share the German habit of large, clothes-free sauna complexes. Berlin's most atmospheric place is the columned Stadtbad Neukölln, and the city as a whole feels calmer than its size suggests, with long Sundays in café gardens.

Cologne has more natural spring water close by. A thermal bath in the Rheinpark, fed by mineral springs, looks across the river to the cathedral, and Aachen's hot springs are a short train ride away. Berlin's nearest thermal resorts are about an hour out in Brandenburg.